February, Charlotte Cowles published a piece in New York Magazine about being scammed out of $50,000 after receiving a call from a so-called Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigator. The caller had an alarming amount of her personal information, and convinced her she was the target of a government investigation. He even sent her a photo of his “badge.”
She was told to withdraw all the money from her bank account in cash, place it in a shoebox and tell no one — not even her husband or the police. When another “investigator” showed up at her door to collect it, she handed it over. By staying silent, they assured her she was protecting her husband from being implicated in the investigation.
Of course, it was a scam. Cowles reported it to her bank, but the money was already gone.
So why did the story go viral? Cowles is a well‑known financial advice columnist — the kind of person you’d expect to spot a scam a mile away.
“It’s impossible to explain why I accepted this logic,” she wrote. “But I had been given marching orders and a deadline.” After the fact, Cowles added, “I felt violated, unreliable; I couldn’t trust myself.”
Her experience, while humiliating, proved that no one is beyond being defrauded — especially now, when scammers can hack into email accounts and access enough personal data to appear credible.
“They can be pretty sophisticated,” says CPA, CFP Karl Schwartz, principal and senior financial advisor at Team Hewins in Boca Raton. “We had an incident where someone hacked into a client’s email and sent us an email requesting funds and wire instructions. We have strict guidelines in place, especially when the request involves sending money to a third-party account, to ensure the request is legitimate. We’ll call the client, who often claims they didn’t do that and that it was entirely fraudulent. We have had a few different attempts, but none have resulted in a loss of money.”
Dana Walsh Sivak, Esq., an attorney at
Falcon Rappaport & Berkman — which has an in office in South Florida and offers elder law
services — wishes she could say the same.
“I have, unfortunately, a fair amount of experience working with elder law clients that have experienced being scammed,” she says. “There are a lot of reasons scammers target older people."
There is scientific data to support that, as we age, it becomes biologically more difficult for the human brain to detect deceptive cues.
They may be less tech-savvy and less able to distinguish a phishing scam from a legitimate verification text. Older adults are especially attractive targets because they often have more liquid assets, such as a fully paid-off home or a lifetime of retirement savings. Those who live alone are even more vulnerable. There are less eyes on them on a day-to-day basis, and if they’re lonely, they may feel drawn to someone who is paying attention to them or make them feel special.”
“Outreach to the elderly often involves phone calls [purporting to be] from these businesses that are ubiquitous to everyone, like Verizon or a major credit card company,” says Schwartz.
Sivak says some of the most common scams she’s encountered mirror Cowles’ story: fraudsters posing as government officials or bank representatives requesting personal or financial information. Others claim the victim has won a contest. Then there are romance scams — where con artists build relationships online and eventually ask for money.
A particularly manipulative method targets grandparents: A scammer pretends to be their grandchild — or someone calling on behalf of their grandchild — claiming something terrible will happen if they don’t send money immediately.
“Once a grandparent hears their grandchild is in some kind of trouble, a lot of logic goes out the window because they’re so overcome by panic,” says Sivak. "Even if they sense, on some level, that it might not be true, most grandparents would risk losing their money rather than risk causing their grandchild harm or suffering.”
With the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI), manipulated communications sound more realistic than ever — enabling scammers to mimic a loved one’s voice with chilling accuracy.
Cowles said she was told her house was being monitored for security reasons and that the scammers knew her son was home. Had they not mentioned her child, “I would never have fallen for this,” she wrote.
Creating a sense of urgency — especially when it comes to your family — is a key part of the scammer’s playbook. Much of this personal information is easily gathered from social media. The money, in most cases, is nearly impossible to recoup.
“It’s tough with wire transfers,” says Schwartz. “If you catch it right away — like, as soon as it goes out — there’s a chance your bank can freeze the assets. But if you find out even the next day, there’s really nothing you can do.”
In addition to the financial damage, the emotional impact is overwhelming.
“It’s often worse,” notes Sivak.
“People feel embarrassed when they realize they’ve been a victim of a scam, so much so [that] they don’t tell their family or report it to the police. The loss of someone’s life savings can be devastating — especially if it’s money saved for their retirement.
For victims of romance scams, not only do they have to face the reality that they lost their money, they also lost what they thought was a significant relationship in their lives. All the joy they felt was a complete fallacy.”
Both Schwartz and Sivak stress that anyone can fall victim — not just the elderly.
Just ask 28-year-old teacher Russell Leahy of Texas, who lost $32,000 — his entire life savings — after receiving a call from someone he believed to be a Chase representative claiming there was suspicious activity on his account.
“I couldn’t even believe how sophisticated it was,” Leahy told WFAA in Dallas.
“Throughout our client base, we’ve seen it happen to younger people and older people alike, people who are very smart,” says Schwartz.
“People fall victim all the time,” Sivak concludes. “When you consider the lengths and technical savvy scammers use these days, it’s a wonder more people don’t become victims of scams than already do.”
HOW TO AVOID FALLING VICTIM TO A SCAM
• Be suspicious of calls or emails from banks where you don’t have accounts.
• If someone is pressuring you to act quickly, pause. Scammers often create urgency to cloud judgment.
• Check the sender’s email and phone number. If it looks odd or unfamiliar, it may be fake.
• Avoid engaging with unknown people on the phone or online.
• When using your phone, apps, social media or email, assume many unsolicited messages are scams.
• Never share private information — such as your social security number, birthdate, bank information or security answers — over email.
• Be wary of new relationships that quickly lead to requests for money.
• Tell someone — a family member or the police — if you’re asked to send money.
• If you’re a senior, don’t be embarrassed to speak up. Scams are designed to fool even the most cautious.
• Families should stay in regular contact with elderly loved ones and foster open conversations about potential scams.
• If you’re suspicious of who the caller claims to be, hang up and call the organization directly using an official number.